We are just 10 days past the 17th MLS Cup championship – so why does it seem like three weeks?
Probably because this will be the shortest MLS off-season, if we can even call it that. The time off has been trimmed on both sides; the 2012 season went longer than ever, into December for the first time, and the 2013 regular season begins earlier than ever, in early March. It’s about a month earlier than in those first years of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
That means things are moving at lickety-split pace. There’s no other way.
Talking points so far (some of which have been resolved, others not):
- The ongoing David Beckham watch
- The ongoing Landon Donovan watch
- Real Salt Lake’s roster makeover
- Red Bull’s roster makeover and coaching search
- Chivas USA’s coaching search
- D.C. United’s management shuffle
- An eventful period of player option declines
- An uneventful Phase I of the MLS Re-Entry Draft
For a more thorough review of the above, and more, this is a good place to start: a piece from Soccer America wrapping up the first 10 days of Major League’s Soccer post-season lite.